The Silmarillion/Characters: Difference between revisions

* [[Divine Ranks]]: Eru > Valar > Maiar is just the start of it. The Valar too are divided into greater (Aratar) and lesser Valar, and the Maiar are by no means all equal to each other.

* [[Evil Cannot Comprehend Good]]: Inverted - Manwë unwisely lets Morgoth out of his prison because he is literally unable to understand what motivates Morgoth to do evil due to his own [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness]].

** Ulmo often goes against the other Valar to directly aid people and manipulate events, most notably when he recruited Tuor as his messenger to Gondolin.

* [[God Is Flawed]]: While the Valar are all good, they're not perfect, and from time to time have to regret their past mistakes.

* [[Dual-Wielding]]: Both a [[An Axe to Grind|Axe]] and a [[Whip It Good|Whip]].

* [[Flaming Sword]]: Although neither are swords, both his axe and whip are made of fire.

* [[Large and In Charge]]

* [[Our Demons Are Different]]

The High King of the first Elven clan, the Vanyar. Also considered to be THE High King of all Elves.

 

* [[Hair of Gold]]: The ruler of the [[People of Hair Color|Elves With Hair of Gold.]] Many other [[Hair of Gold]] characters in the story, such as Finrod, Galadriel and Idril, inherited theirs from his niece Indis.

* [[Meaningful Name]]: Christopher Tolkien notes that his name is probably a reference to "Yngvi", an alternate name for the god Frey, king of the elves in [[Norse Mythology]].

* [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]

* [[Stuffed Into the Fridge]]: Has his head smashed and is left to be found by his family, finishing Fëanor's descent into villainy

 

== Míriel ==

* [[Green-Eyed Monster]]: Jealous of his father's affection.

* [[He Who Fights Monsters]]

* [[Heroic BSOD]]: Thanks to Melkor, who else. When he hears the news of what has happened in Formenos, he falls down to the ground unable to speak, then curses Melkor renaming him as Morgoth, and runs into the night, crying hysterically.

* [[I Gave My Word]]: His oath to reclaim the silmarils, no matter the cost.

* [[Insufferable Genius]]: Has elements of this.

* [[Great White Hunter]]: Eventually drops the heroic part of this trope in Middle-earth, but clearly starts out as one. In Valinor he was a friend of Oromë, who taught him the languages of animals. Which incidentally is also a skill his rival Beren [[Not So Different|has learned aswell.]]

* [[Heroes Love Dogs]]: While still being heroic, and after turning villanous, he surely loves dogs - until they [[Heel Face Turn|turn against him]], at least. (And horses. Liking them seems to go hand-in-hand in Middle-earth.)

* [[I Have You Now, My Pretty]]: He tries to force Lúthien to marry him so he can gain rulership of Doriath. He fails.

* [[Jerkass]]

* [[Fantastic Racism]]: Played with. While noticeably non-racist towards the Dwarves, he's initially racist towards Men. Then Haleth's courage makes him [[Character Development|change his]] mind about them. This leads to him trusting Ulfang's sons...

* [[Hair-Trigger Temper]]: When you're a prince, this can and will lead to major political problems.

* [[Horrible Judge of Character]]: Leading to his betrayal by the sons of Ulfang.

* [[Loners Are Freaks]]: While his brothers go in duos, he's a loner. He's a freak even among them.

* [[The Chessmaster]]: What he is aiming for. He manages to pull it off for a while, until the pawns see through it.

* [[Jerkass]]

* [[Parental Favoritism]]: He was Fëanor's favorite son.

* [[Pet the Dog]]: A very curious case of the author ''wanting'' to give such moment but not quite succeeding. Tolkien wrote in ''[[The History of Middle Earth (Literature)|The History of Middle Earth]]'' he felt Curufin appeared more villainous than he really was because he was mostly present in the Lay of Leithian where he has the role of an antagonist. To change this Tolkien wrote a scene where Curufin's cousin Aredhel is escaping from her [[Domestic Abuser]] husband Eöl, and Curufin captures Eöl who is on her trail. Curufin is perfectly able of killing Eöl there and then, and none of his men would object. However, Curufin spares Eöl because killing him would be a cold blooded ''murder'', and [[Even Evil Has Standards|even Curufin has standards.]] Nontheless, Curufin is chiefly remembered as a pure-bred villain, so the effect wasn't great enough.

* [[Braids of Action]]: Wore his long dark hair in braids.

* [[Conflicting Loyalty]]: Because of his and his [[Childhood Friends|best friend's]] [[Feuding Families]]. Against all odds they manage to avoid [[Evil Former Friend|falling apart.]]

* [[Undying Loyalty]]: Despite believeing Maedhros had [[Et Tu, Brute?|betrayed him]], he still resolved to go on a hopeless mission to find and save him.

* [[Warrior Prince]]

Finwë's youngest son, half-brother of Fëanor and full brother of Fingolfin. Taking after his Vanyarin mother, he was the wisest and kindest of the three, and tried to stay away from his brothers' quarrels. Instead he preferred the company of the sea-loving Teleri, and married Eärwen, the daughter of Olwë, the king of Teleri in Valinor and the brother of Thingol. This put him into very uncomfortable position during the unfortunate events that came. Finarfin didn't want to leave Valinor, and when most of the Noldor and his family - including all his children - went into exile, Finarfin stayed behind with some of the Noldor, becoming their High King in Tirion.

 

* [[Cain and Abel]]: Abel to Fëanor's Cain.

* [[Conflicting Loyalty]]: Between his Noldorin and Telerin families.

 

* [[Hair of Gold]]

* [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]: Of all the princes of the Noldor, he had the most calm demeanor and was slow to go to war.

 

Youngest child of Finarfin and his only daughter. Galadriel was the wisest and most powerful of all Elven-women. Though she hated Fëanor, she took part in his rebellion out of a desire to rule her own kingdom in Middle-earth. In the published Silmarillion she travelled into Middle-earth over the ices of Helcaraxë with the rest of the Noldor, and lived in Doriath where she met and married Celeborn. Later in ''[[The History of Middle Earth (Literature)|The History of Middle Earth]]'' this was revised: she and Celeborn married already in Valinor and sailed into Middle-earth on their own. During the Second Age she took up in Eregion under Celebrimbor, and after its fall, she became the White Lady of Lothlórien. See ''[[The Lord of the Rings (Literature)/Characters|The Lord of the Rings]]'' character sheet for tropes that apply to her in that work.

 

* [[Hair of Gold]]

* [[Intergenerational Friendship]]: With Melian (older than her) and later Elrond (younger).

* [[Shell-Shocked Veteran]]: His PTSD comes not from war, but from being a slave in Angband for fourteen years before finally escaping.

* [[Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty]]: He advocated that Nargothrond continue to use stealth and guerilla tactics against Morgoth. Túrin disagreed.

* [[You Will Be Spared]]: As with many other Noldor, Gwindor was captured and put to work in the mines and forges of Angband, as a great many Noldor were skilled in smithcraft.

 

* [[Together in Death]]: Ironically her [[Heroic Sacrifice]] of giving up her immortality to enable him to return to life allows them to finally be eternally together. As an Elf she would have been ultimately separated from him, as the souls of dead mortals pass out of the world, and the Elves, even when their bodies die, must stay inside it until the end of time. But when she becames a mortal too, their souls will leave the world and face the unknown fate outside it together.

* [[What Could Have Been]]: The first versions of her and her tale are very different from how the story finally shaped out to be. Originally she was a [[Blue Eyes|blue eyed]] [[Hair of Gold|blonde]] dressed up [[Woman in White|in white]], Daeron was her brother and Beren was an Elf, Sauron was [[Cats Are Mean|a huge cat]], she didn't die but walked into Valinor over Helcaraxë to meet Mandos and so forth.

 

== Dior ==

 

* [[Badass Princess|Badass Chieftainess]]

* [[Founder of the Kingdom]]

* [[Grande Dame]]

* [[Author Avatar]]

* [[All or Nothing]]

* [[Back From the Dead]]: He's specifically pointed out as the only Man who knows whither their souls go after death, but he never spoke with another human after coming back...

* [[Badass Normal]]

* [[Brother-Sister Incest]]: but he didn't ''know'' she was his sister...

* [[Captain Ersatz]]: Of Kullervo from ''[[The Kalevala]]''.

* [[Cosmic Plaything]]

* [[Dark Is Not Evil]]

* [[Star-Crossed Lovers]]: with Finduilas ([[Like Brother and Sister|one-sided]] or [[All Love Is Unrequited|unrequited]]) and Nienor (unknowingly his sister).

* [[The Call Knows Where You Live]]

* [[Tragic Hero]]

* [[You Can't Fight Fate]]

* [[The Emperor]]: Technically Ar-Pharazôn is a King, but he's powerful enough to be this. He is mainly of the "President Charisma" type.

* [[Fate Worse Than Death]]: As soon as he steps on the soil of Valinor, Eru Ilúvatar changes the world and in the ensuing upheaval, Ar-Pharazôn and his men are trapped in caves underground until the Dagor Dagorath. It's implied that this makes them immortal, so it's also an ironic karmic fate.

* [[Green-Eyed Monster]]: Ar-Pharazôn and the Númenoreans in general deeply envy and desire the immortality of the Elves and the Valar.

* [[Immortality Seeker]]: When he is old this is how Sauron tempts him. Although generations of Númenoreans had desired eternal life, Ar-Pharazôn was desperate enough to launch his Great Armament against Valinor to try and demand it by force from the Valar. This did not end well.